With the changes at Fox and 21st Century Fox and the TV/Animation division now property of Disney , its hard to believe that the main network has been around 30+ years. The network is entering its biggest change ahead since the days it launched back in 1987. But we have to go back and examine how wild this launch was and I'll run down 2 of the shows time has forgotten.
Nearly 30 years before Netflix did "Orange is the New Black" , this show was produced. This comedy would star a group of women who were behind bars. You had the various characters "Vicki Sprangler " the 80's yuppie who is new to prison. The old prisoner who had been there 10 years "Eve Shipley" , one prisoner was named "Dawn Murphy" who killed her abusive ex-husband and finally the prostitute named "Bonnie Harper".
Fox had high hopes for this series and placed it on its 2 night debut schedule in 1987. The cast also included CCH Pounder (Murphy) , Wendie Jo Sperber (who had been in Back to Future and had a TV/Film career before and after this) and former Saturday Night Live actress Denny Dillon who is remembered for being part of the god awful Saturday Night Live 1980 cast. Overall the series had other character actors/actresses involved but never could find its audience on the young launched network.
After 13 episodes Women in Prison would end . Comically how these women were in jail is more silly. One was in prison for shop lifting and another was in jail for prostitution. A 1st time shop lifter in this case. Which is pretty funny looking back at this.
Fox also aired shows on Saturday at launch then and one show they approved that was more of an attempt to lure the 21 Jump Street crowd was .."The New Adventures of Bean Baxter". The premise of the show was that Bean's father is a secret agent who gets kidnapped by an evil organization. The spy agency Bean's father worked for recruits him to take his place as the series has Bean trying to find his kidnapped father.
The show was created by Savage Steve Holland who wrote and directed many 1980's classic hits like "One Crazy Summer" and "How I got Into College" as well as creating later Eek the Cat . It starred Jonathon Ward who was coming off a few TV stints as a young actor on "Charles in Charge" and the short lived "Heart of Clay" he was signed to do this one. One wild note is that Ward originally wasn't gonna get this role. It was 1st offered to ....David Spade. Spade's agents told him to turn it down as he regretted doing it.
Ward would go on to win an award for Best New Young TV Actor for the role of Beans Baxter as well. So things would seem promising for this series possibly. The cast itself was veterans around Ward as well. Rick Lenz (who played his father) was a veteran TV/Film actor who has worked up til 2012. Elinor Donahue (who played his mother) was a veteran TV actress who had starred as a young girl in Father Knows Best and had been on various TV shows . She would still be seen in guest roles and spots til 2011.
Sadly for the show it would only last 17 episodes and end in 1988. This show would inspire seemingly the Frankie Muniz series of films "Agent Cody Banks" . You can still watch this series on youtube as people have posted some of the episodes.